The King's Example

“Alexajider, when his army grew sluggish because laden with the spoils of their enemies to free the?nfrom this incumbrance, commanded all his own baggage to be set on fire, that when they saw the king himself devote his rich treasures to the flames they inight not nmrmicr if their inite and pittance were co7isumed also. So, if Christ had taught us co7itempt of the world, and had not given tcs an instance of it in his owft person, his doctrine had been less powerful and effecttialP But what an example we now find in him, seeing he had not where to lay his head in life, nor a rag to cover him in death, nor anything but a borrowed grave in burial. What manner of persons ought we to be in all unselfishness when we have such a Lord! He hath not said to us in matters of self-denial, ‘’Take up thy cross and go,” but “Come, take up thy cross, and follow me.” Fired by the heroic self-sacrifice of our King, the sternest abnegation of self and the severest renunciation of the world should become an easy matter. Well may the soldiers endure hardness when the King himself roughs it among us, and suffers more than the meanest private in our ranks.

My soul, I charge thee, endure hardness, and look not for ease where Jesus found death.